| Added by |
 Bart Perdieus
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| General Description | The Lion's Mound (or "Lion's Hillock", "Butte du Lion" in French, "Leeuw van Waterloo" in Dutch) is a large conical artificial hill located in Waterloo, Belgium and raised on the battlefield of Waterloo, to commemorate the location where William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of Orange) was knocked from his horse by a musket ball to the shoulder during the battle. It was ordered constructed in 1820 by his father, King William I of The Netherlands, and completed in 1826. The prince fought at the preluding Battle of Quatre Bras (16 June, 1815) and the Battle of Waterloo (18 June, 1815). The monument was designed by the Royal Architect, Charles Van der Straeten, at the behest of William I. Inspiration was provided by the engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain, who conceived of it as a symbol of the Allied victory, rather than as pertaining to a single individual. The shape consciously recapitulates that of the tumulus of the Belgae, whom Julius Caesar had singled out as the bravest of the Gallic tribes. A huge mound was constructed at the spot, using earth taken from other parts of the battlefield, including the fields between La Haye Sainte farm and the Duke of Wellington's sunken lane. The mound is 43 m (141 ft) in height and has a circumference of 520 m (1706 ft), which dimensions would yield a volume in excess of 390,000 m3 (514,000 yd3), despite the usual claim of 300,000 m3. The discrepancy might be accounted for if part of the volume is occupied by an existing volume of some topographic feature, say, the ridge of Mont-St. Jean. |
| Height | 90.00 mm |
| Width | 140.00 mm |
| Catalog prices | No catalog prices set yet |
